Plumbing in Cleona, PA

Two building eras in one small borough

Cleona, ZIP 17042, has been a borough since 1929, strung along a mile of Route 422, and its housing comes in two clear layers. More than half the homes were built before 1960. Then, after a quiet few decades, the 1980s added more houses than any other decade since the war. Almost nothing has been built since 2010.

That split is the most useful thing to know before anyone opens a wall. In the older layer the trouble is usually the pipe itself: galvanized supply narrowing year by year, cast iron drains catching paper and grease. In the 1980s layer the pipe is usually fine and the trouble is everything attached to it, from seized shutoffs to tired water heaters and fixtures that need parts.

Water from the city, sewer from the borough

Cleona’s drinking water comes from the City of Lebanon Authority. The sewer is the borough’s own: the Cleona Borough Authority bills sewer and stormwater, and the wastewater runs to the City of Lebanon Authority’s treatment plant in North Cornwall Township, which discharges into the Quittapahilla. The sanitary and storm lines are separate systems, which is worth knowing if anyone suggests running a sump pump or a downspout into the house sewer line.

When a drain backs up, the question is where. A single slow fixture is inside the house. Several fixtures at once, or water coming up through a basement floor drain, points at the lateral between the house and the street, and that run is the owner’s. Drain cleaning covers how a repeat blockage gets traced.

Service line letters

The City of Lebanon Authority has been sending letters to customers about what their service lines are made of. In November 2024 it wrote to about 2,300 customers whose lines might be lead. On CoLA water, the utility handles its side of the curb stop and the property owner arranges the side running into the house. The lead service line guide explains what each category on the letter means.